The victimisation of backpackers

Mark Israel Tourism has emerged as an important part of the Australian economy. The specialist sector of the market devoted to backpackers is surprisingly valuable: backpackers contribute just under $900 million over the year to Australia, mostly in foreign currency. They represent at least 6% of all overseas visitors to this country and provide a consistent and dependable clientele to many regions normally overlooked by other Backpackers are vulnerable to tourists. In the last ten years, cheap, conveniently-located hostels, various predatory and property eating places, coffee houses, clubs, equipment shops, and magazines have all developed to service backpackers’ needs. crimes. Over the same period, several members of the backpacking industry have expressed concern at the effect on the development of their industry of a number of well-publicised cases of the death of backpackers, in particular the murder of seven backpackers at Belanglo by Ivan Milat and the deaths of six travellers as a result of an arson attack on a Kings Cross hostel. Anyone who might have wanted to explore the victimisation of backpackers would have found little in the academic literature to help them. While there is a growing international literature on backpacking, this is largely confined to work on topics such as backpacker roles and motivation, marketing opportunities and the road culture of backpackers.1 No studies have been done on their vulnerability to crime. Indeed, there have been very few studies of the effect of crime on tourists at all. Since the importance of tourism to Australia is likely to grow, this article examines the possible contribution that victimology and criminology might make to the continued expansion of the backpacking industry.

Who are backpackers? The modem phenomenon of backpacking draws on older traditions of long-term travel for the purpose of education, escape, health or occasional work. Contemporary backpackers are not easily distinguished by their economic or demographic characteristics. Instead Australian researchers prefer to use social criteria. Backpackers are generally distinguished by their approach to travel and holiday taking, namely their preference for budget accommodation, independently arranged and flexible travel, and informal and unstructured leisure activities. As Kakadu Plus, a backpacker’s guide to the Top End announced in 1993, ‘... backpackers are not tourists, they are travellers. They do not travel just to see the sights but to experience the places they visit.’ Backpackers do usually visit tourist sights but also seek non-tourist experiences. They place emphasis ‘on travel rather than tourism, on individual choice, on avoiding the package holiday-maker, on the need to be an educated traveller, and on a global operation that permits individual care and attention’.2 Over the past ten years, a number of national and regional studies Mark Israel teaches criminology in the law school at have provided profiles of backpackers in this country. We now know Flinders University of South Australia. that most backpackers are 20-29 years old and are either still studying or

VOL. 24, NO. 5, OCTOBER • 1999 229 VICTIMISATION OF BACKPACKERS are young professionals in their first jobs. activities such as purchasing drugs A majority of backpackers usually travel from new sources or moving in alone or with just one other person, and the company of strangers. Local most come to Australia on holiday, offenders may find it easier, safer and though some may work while they are more profitable to rob a tourist than a travelling here. An Australian Bureau of local. They may also find it less Tourism Research survey published in morally troublesome. As Cohen 1997 found that almost 20% of reported in Thailand, tourists may be backpackers were British, 14% North considered ‘fair game’, and may be American, 11% German, while less likely to report offences or turn up Scandinavians, New Zealanders and to court to give evidence.6 Japanese each comprised between 6% For many backpackers, one of the and 8%. Other travellers came from joys of travel is the opportunity it Singapore and South-East Asia, offers to develop independence. For Switzerland, the Netherlands and other some, travelling alone is preferable, parts of Europe.3 since it allows more interactions with locals and other travellers, and might The safety of backpackers provide a better chance of receiving Generally, there have been very few free rides or local hospitality. However, studies of the incidence of crime on this also increases the chances of tourists. The findings are not contact with strangers in situations straightforward though they do point that the backpacker may find difficult consistently to the vulnerability of to control: tourists to particular kinds of offences including property ... since they do not enjoy the protection of the environmental crimes, robbery, assault, larceny, fraud and even murder. For bubble of conventional tourism, and are often prepared to example, in the United States, Chesney-Lind and Lind found engage in interaction with locals of whose background and that tourists holidaying in Hawaii were subject to higher intentions they are ignorant, they are more exposed than rates of robbery and rape than locals. In southern Spain, Per conventional tourists to acts of theft and robbery perpetrated by Stangeland reported that a major part of all burglaries and local criminals.7 petty thefts in the province of Malaga were perpetrated Put more luridly by the Age, the travellers ’ culture ‘boasts against tourists. Consequently, people faced a greater chance freedom and fast friendship but can make people easy prey of becoming a victim of crime if they came on holiday to the for creeps, con artists and killers’. Many of the precautions region for two weeks than permanent residents did over an that urban residents routinely take are less attractive to entire year. In Australia, James Walmsley and his colleagues backpackers either because they are more difficult for them found that tourist areas experienced higher than expected to take or because they are less desirable on holiday. Indeed, rates for theft, though tourists were not necessarily the there is some suggestion that travellers are more likely to victims. On the other hand, they found that these same areas drop their inhibitions while on holiday. Although Kelly had lower than expected incidences of sexual assault and attributes this to higher rates of alcohol or drug consumption drug offences.4 It is possible that concern with personal while on the road, we might speculate that travellers prefer to safety is a major factor influencing the decisions that tourists ditch their ‘everyday concerns’ in favour of a more carefree make about where they will go. Indeed, the travel industry lifestyle.8 has expressed its anxiety that panics about the safety of non-budget tourists may lead to a decline in Australian Backpackers often cannot or choose not to afford to take market share. Reports in the Australian media have safer options: hitch-hiking is cheaper than paying for a suggested that conventional Japanese tourists have been put ticket. However, travelling as cheaply as possible, and off travelling to Australia because of the high risk of criminal paying as little as possible for accommodation affords victimisation.5 backpackers access to the least desirable aspects of a society: We know less about the levels of crime against Like the mass-tourist, the mass-drifter also gets a biased picture backpackers or what importance backpackers attach to of the host society; the latter’s perspective, however, is personal safety when planning where to go. However, there diametrically opposed to that of the former: the one looks at the are good reasons to believe that backpackers are particularly host country from the lofty heights of an air-conditioned hotel vulnerable to victimisation, either aimed against their person room; the other from the depths of the dust-bin.9 or their property. If commentators have addressed the issue, In the 1990s, hitch-hiking has come to be seen as a they have attributed backpackers’ high risk to a series of potentially deadly experience. Magazines such as the personal and situational factors. These have included: Backpackers Guide warn against it: ‘... with some nutters backpackers’ position as strangers in the places that they around — you are not even safe in pairs! We could suggest visit; their preference for independence which removes them travelling with a machine gun, but since this is illegal, from the protection of package travel; their desire to travel another form of transport is advisable and mum and dad will within a limited budget; their vulnerable strategies for sleep a lot better, as well. ’ The Lonely Planet books now also transporting and storing possessions; and the development advise against it. Nevertheless there is plenty of evidence of myths about backpackers among host populations. I wish that backpackers do continue to hitch, and often see it as a to examine each of these possibilities in more detail. good way of meeting Australians and other travellers. In As strangers, backpackers are not known in the local addition, backpackers may be travelling with larger amounts community; they are often highly visible, may be unaware of of cash or with more expensive goods like cameras or local ‘predatory hot spots’, and may undertake risky portable CD players than locals might normally carry. They

230 ALTERNATIVE LAW JOURNAL VICTIMISATION OF BACKPACKERS may also have less control over where and when they leave stabbed or shot in the previous four years. Many of the them. victims had disappeared while hitchhiking south of Sydney. Finally, myths surrounding travellers may encourage The British tabloids splashed coverage of the death of two locals to target them for victimisation. Breach of local social young English women: ‘Cold-blooded murder of girl customs and restrictions such as moral notions of the adventurers’, ‘Beast of the Bush’, ‘Crocodile Dundee Adventure Girls are found Dead in Wood’. In 1996, Ivan appropriate behaviour of women, may help local offenders justify or neutralise offences against backpackers. For Milat was tried and convicted of the murders. instance — according to media reports — sexual assault in In June 1993, fears arose that a serial killer might be South Australia has been justified by a senior police officer operating in Coober Pedy, a town 950 kilometres north of in terms of male Australian fantasies of sexually and morally Adelaide. An Aboriginal woman, Karen Williams, had loose backpackers. In August 1993, a senior South disappeared in 1990, an Italian tourist in 1991, and Anne Australian police spokesman was quoted in the Advertiser: Neumann, a 22-year-old German backpacker — the third ‘It is a well-known fact many of these young girls travelling woman to disappear in four years — went missing in 1993. around are short on cash so they prostitute themselves in The media suggested that the disappearances were part of a order to keep travelling’. pattern whereby ‘female backpackers often were lured into threatening situations’ near the town. Police warned What is often overlooked is that even if backpackers backpackers, particularly young women, not to walk alone in behaved in the same way as their local peers they would still the town. After the third disappearance, the Chairman of the fall into the most vulnerable of groups: they are young, town’s Retail, Business and Tourism Association was mobile, travel on public transport and go to places of reported in the Adelaide Advertiser in July as saying that entertainment in the evenings. businesses were worried by the loss of tourist revenue. The typical backpacker appears to place security behind Neumann’s body was later recovered in a mine shaft and, in price, cleanliness, location, hours of access and cooking September 1994, a local man was convicted of the murder. facilities in factors that influence his or her choice of Although the tourism industry has expressed concern accommodation and the choice of destination is more likely about the effects of incidents such as the murders at Belanglo to be influenced by natural attractions, friendliness of the and Coober Pedy, we really have very little idea how many locals, or the interesting local culture than by whether it is backpackers know about these events, and whether, if they safe to travel there. However, despite such findings, we do do, it has any effect on where and how they travel in not really understand how fears about safety influence the Australia. Throughout this period, researchers have choice of travel destinations by backpackers. Sadly several remained silent. recent events suggest that the Australian industry may have to find out. Future research In September 1989, four men and a woman suffocated in a fire deliberately lit at the Downunder Hostel in Kings Cross, Any future work on the victimisation of backpackers needs Sydney. One other tourist later died in hospital from bums. to be able to respond to the issues raised by both the Kings According to the local mayor, the building had failed to meet Cross and the Belanglo deaths. We need to have a clearer fire safety requirements for the previous six years, in part idea of how, to what extent, and why backpackers might be because there was combustible material in the fire stair area vulnerable to crimes against their person and their property and the main stairwell had not been fully isolated. When the in specific places and at particular times. Current official fire occurred, the fire doors to the main stairwell had been statistics are woefully inadequate. This means either that jammed open and fire equipment installed in the hostel tourists need to be persuaded by criminal justice agencies to proved useless. The State coroner later wrote about who report offences against them or that we need to develop could be held responsible: ‘Who, I asked, was negligent? victimisation surveys that look at the incidence of crime The answer was, “Just about everybody’” . The management against travellers. had failed to minimise recognisable risks, the chief building Once we have established what sort of problem might engineer of the local council had failed to inform exist, we can then look for ways of preventing crime. These management or the council of various threats to fire safety might include finding ways of changing the behaviour of that he had seen during an inspection, and the council had put potential victims by encouraging people to carry fewer in place procedures for regulating hostels that were slow, possessions or store them more securely, publicising safer haphazard and uncertain, in short, wholly inadequate for the types of transport or informing backpackers about relatively task of protecting the public. Indeed, the hostel may have dangerous areas. They may also involve focusing on the only stayed in business because of poor co-ordination difficulties that might be faced by particular groups of between Sydney City and South Sydney council authorities. travellers — targeted perhaps because of their gender, Some of the recommendations of the coroner were sexuality, nationality or race — who may be vulnerable to incorporated in the New South Wales Local Government predatory or hate crimes. (Backpackers' Hostel) Act 1990, though this does not seem However, these forms of responses invite us to attribute to have ended the existence of potential fire-traps in the blame to the victim, a tendency often associated with advice State.10 traditionally offered to women in public. They would also Several disappearances and murders of backpackers have miss one of the more salutary lessons of the Kings Cross fire. also heightened fears in the industry that the backpacking The fire was lit by an arsonist. However, the flames took hold sector of the market is particularly vulnerable. Between quickly and those who died were unable to escape because of September 1992 and November 1993, police discovered the the neglect of the management and a failure of local councils remains of seven bodies in the Belanglo State Forest 120 to respond to repeated breaches of fire regulations. Apart kilometres south-west of Sydney. The victims were British, from paying attention to issues of racism and sexism, any German and Australian backpackers who had been either critical work worth contemplating should also investigate

VOL. 24, NO. 5, OCTOBER • 1999 231 VICTIMISATION OF BACKPACKERS the role of economic development and corporate greed in the Stangeland, P., The Crime Puzzle: Crime Patterns and Crime victimisation of backpackers and consider the possibilities Displacement in Southern Spain, IAIC, Malaga, 1995; Walmsley, D., Boskovic, R. and Pilgram, J., ‘Tourism and Crime: an Australian for undertaking the prosecution of corporate or state Perspective’, (1983) 15 Journal of Leisure Research 136; see also offenders. Jackson, M.S. and Schmierer, C.L., ‘Tourism and Crime: More Crime but Less Reporting, in Prosser, G. (ed), Tourism and Hospitality Conclusion Research: Australian and International Perspectives. 1996 Conference Proceedings, Bureau o f Tourism Research, Canberra, Backpackers form a significant client group for the tourism 1996, p.549; Pizam, A. and Mansfield, Y. (eds), Tourism, Crime and industry in Australia. They are particularly important to International Security Issues, John Wiley, Chichester, 1996; Crotts, J.C., ‘Theoretical Perspectives on Tourist Criminal Victimisation’, remote and rural regions that are too far off the beaten track (1996) 7 Journal of Tourism Studies 2. for conventional international tourists. Unfortunately, there are good reasons to believe that backpackers are vulnerable 5. Scott, R., ‘ Police Act to Protect Japanese Tourists ’, Financial Review, 8 to various predatory and property crimes. Their vulnerability November 1990; Kelly, I., ‘Tourist Destination Crime Rates: An stems, in part, from their age, their budget, the ways they Examination of Caims and the Gold Coast, Australia’, (1993) 4 travel, the places they go and the kinds of accommodation Journal of Tourism Studies 2; Collins, C., ‘Rip-offs Spark Call for they seek. Australian tourism and criminal justice Tourism Crackdown’, Australian, 19 December 1997. institutions might respond to the threats to backpackers by 6. Sherman, L.W., Gartin, P.R. and Beurger, M.E., ‘Hot Spots o f Predatory Crime: Routine Activities and the Criminology o f Place’, trying to limit what backpackers do. All they would have to (1989) 21Criminology 27; Cohen, E., ‘The Tourist as Victim and do is proffer the same kinds of crime prevention advice Protege of Law Enforcing Agencies’, (1987) 6 Leisure Studies 181; traditionally targeted at other vulnerable groups such as Farrell, B., Hawaii, the Legend that Sells, University o f Hawaii Press, young women and the elderly. Apart from harming the Honolulu, 1982. tourism industry, however, these kinds of responses would 7. Cohen, E., above, ref. 6, at 189. 8. Middleton, K., ‘Hitchhikers’ Guide to Life’, Age, 28 September 1992; do nothing to address the underlying causes of victimisation. Kelly, I., above, ref. 5. These may range from poor regulation of the tourism 9. Cohen, E. above, ref. 1, at 99. industry, through corporate greed to the prevalence of 10. Zadel, S. and Brown, M., ‘Five Choke to Death as Smoke Fills Hostel’, various sexist and racist attitudes in our society. If we are Sydney Morning Herald 18/9/89; Zadel, S., ‘Mayor tells of 1983 serious about trying to reduce the victimisation of warning’, Sydney Morning Herald 19/9/89; Murrie, J., ‘SA arsonist backpackers we need to develop strategies that respond to jailed for at least 10 years for hostel fire’, Adelaide Advertiser 20 March 1993; Waller, K., Suddenly Dead, Ironbark, Sydney, 1994. the needs of backpackers and are far more sensitive to why people backpack. Future research needs to investigate how and why backpackers might be vulnerable, how they can and do respond to threats of victimisation, and how institutions Brown article continued from p.223 and societies that wish to promote backpacking might be able to help reduce both victimisation and its effects. Conclusion References Customary law will remain significant to its adherents whether or not it receives formal endorsement in a 1. On backpacker roles and motivation see Cohen, E., ‘Nomads from constitution. The majority of those subject to customary law Affluence: Notes on the Phenomenon of Drifter-Tourism’, (1973) 14 would regard a constitution as an exotic document. Thus International Journal of Comparative Sociology 225; Pearce, R, The intensive explanation and discussion with those whose Ulysses Factor: Evaluating Visitors in Tourist Settings, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1988. On marketing opportunities see interests are directly affected is essential in any process Pearce, P., The Backpacker Phenomenon: Preliminary Answers to towards agreeing a formula for cementing customary law Basic Questions, James Cook University, Townsville, 1990; Loker, L., into the legal structure. Pluralism spawns weighty The Backpacker Phenomenon II: More Answers to Further Questions, difficulties that demand both effort and tolerance if they are James Cook University, Townsville, 1993; Jarvis, J., Backpackers in Australia, Western Australian Tourist Commission, Perth, 1993; The to be resolved. What is inexcusable is to create a hierarchy of Billion Dollar Backpackers, National Centre for Australian Studies, sources that belittles customary law. Monash University, 1994; National Backpacker Tourism Strategy, Commonwealth Department o f Tourism, Canberra, 1995. For the road References culture o f backpackers see Mukeiji, C., ‘Bullshitting: Road Lore among Hitchhikers’, (1978) 25 Social Problems 141; Riley, R, ‘Road 1. Duchacek, Ivo D., Rights and Liberties in the World Today: Culture o f International Long-Term Budget Travellers’, (1988) 15 Constitutional Promise or Reality, 1973. Annals of Tourism Research 313. 2. Keen analysts o f constitutions are referred to ss.75 and 76 as read with 2. Urry, J., The Tourist Gaze, Sage, London, 1990. Schedule 3 o f the Solomon Islands Constitution: Schedule to the 3. Pearce, P., The Backpacker Phenomenon: Preliminary Answers to Solomon Islands Independence Order (S I 783 o f 1978 U K) and Basic Questions, James Cook University, Townsville, 1990; Loker, L., Articles 47 and 95 o f the Vanuatu Constitution: Act No. 10 o f 1980. above, ref. 1; Jarvis, J., 1993; Cairns Backpackers Accommodation 3. Chanock, Martin Law, Custom and Social Order, the Colonial Association, The Importance o f Backpackers to the Cairns Economy, Experience in Malawi and Zambia, Cambridge University Press, Annual Report, Caims Backpackers Accommodation Association, 1985. Cairns, 1988; Kinhill Cameron McNamara, Northern Territory 4. Vanuatu Supreme Court Appeal Case 1 o f 1996. Backpacker Survey 1989-90, Northern Territory Tourist Commission, 5. High Court o f Solomon Islands Civil Case 64 o f 89. Darwin, 1990; McCulloch, J., Backpackers: The Growth Sector of Australian Tourism, Queensland Parliamentary Library Resources and 6. (1989-94) Vanuatu Law Reports 545. Publications Section, Brisbane, 1991; Jarvis, J., 1993; Murphy, L., 7. Allott, A. N., ‘Towards the Unification o f Laws in Africa’, (1965) 14 ‘Kangaroos, Koalas and Vegemite: Backpackers’ Images of Australia ICLQ 366. as a Holiday Destination’, Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research, John Wiley, Chichester, 1998, 348; Buchanan, I. and Rossetto, A., With my Swag upon my Shoulder: a Comprehensive Study of International Backpackers to Australia, Bureau of Tourism Research, Canberra, 1997. 4. Chesney-Lind, M. and Lind, I., ‘Visitors as Victims: Crimes Against Tourists in Hawaii’, (1986) 13 Annals o f Tourism Research 167;

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